A Week of Rest

Next week, June 29-July 3, Greenville Technical College will be closed. It will be a great opportunity for the entire college to get rested and rejuvenated before the rush of the Fall semester begins. As students, you can also take this week to be proactive with your financial aid.

• If you have not submitted a FAFSA for 2009-2010 you should do so next week. You can go to www.fafsa.ed.gov to complete one.
• If you have submitted your FAFSA and have gotten a request back for more information, please gather those documents and return them to our office on July 6th.
• If you have gotten an award letter for the 2009-2010 academic year, please sign the letter and return it to our office on July 6th.
• If you have any questions regarding your financial aid awards please consult our website at http://www.gvltec.edu/financial_aid/ . There is a wealth of information available here that should answer most of your questions.
• If you would like to take out student loans and have not received them in the past, please complete an entrance loan counseling session at http://mappingyourfuture.org/ and a promissory note with your lender.

Hopefully these quick tips will help you get ahead while the college is closed. When we return on July 6th, we do anticipate an increased volume of student traffic. With that in mind, please strive to make every trip to the financial aid office productive. Make sure you have all of the requested documentation with correct signatures. Please make sure you know what questions you would like to have answered so you can avoid return trips.

Overall, we are excited about entering into Fall registration. We have a full staff this year who are ready to serve you. We have made some changes in financial aid over the past year that are intended to make your financial aid experience much more efficient and effective.

As always, if you have any questions, please contact the financial aid office at 864-250-8128 or financialaid@gvltec.edu .

Let us know how we can serve you!

Am I being audited by financial aid???

No you are not being audited. However, you have been selected for verification. You can think of this as a similar process to being audited, except at the end you won't have to pay back money and fees if the numbers don't add up!

If you receive a letter in the mail from the Financial Aid Office informing you that you have been selected for verification, then you are joining roughly 30% of students around the country who have to go through this process. The reason you were selected is so the Department of Education can verify that the information you submitted on your FAFSA is accurate according to your tax returns. Any discrepancies can be cleared up during this process. While we will look at your financial information, we will also verify your family situation. Many times students are selected for verification because of a unique family situation that we need additional clarification on. This is just to ensure that we can give you the maximum amount of financial aid that you qualify for.

One of the most important aspects of verification is the paperwork (I know you are excited!!). However, by turning in ALL of the requested documents and verifying that the appropriate signatures are in place, you can ensure a smooth verification process.

One more note: whenever you receive notice that you were selected for verification, turn your documents in as soon as possible. The quicker you turn them in, the quicker we can process them, and the quicker we can get your file completed and award you your financial aid!

Look at this process as quality control. Without these benchmarks built into our system we would not be able to offer the extensive options within financial aid that allow you to go to school!

As always, if you have any questions regarding this process or anything else concerning financial aid, please contact our office at 864-250-8128 or financialaid@gvltec.edu.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

New Scholarship!!

As promised we are trying to give you, our students, every opportunity to fund your education outside of student loans. I just received a notice for a new scholarship that you can apply for.

The Greenville Chapter of Las Amigas, Incorporated Scholarship.

The scholarship is up to $1000 per academic year. You must be a high school graduate or have received a GED. You must live in the Greenville area and you must be accepted by any Techincal College or already attending a Technical College as an undergraduate.

Applications are available in the Financial Aid office.

Please apply soon as the deadline is rapidly approaching!!!

FAFSA Made Easy!

Adventures in Education, is a non profit public service program that helps students plan and complete their journey through higher education. They have developed a series of video guides that will walk you through the FAFSA process.

If you are like me and learn much better through visual teaching, this video series may give you the confidence you need to start and complete your FAFSA.

Here is the link to the video series:

http://www.aie.org/FAFSAMadeEasy/videoarchive_english.cfm

As always, you can complete the FAFSA online anytime for FREE at

www.fafsa.ed.gov

For Greenville Tech Financial Aid info. please visit our website at:

http://www.gvltec.edu/financial_aid/